Religions have so many contradicting aspects to each other. They start war, justify terrorism and discriminate against minority groups. They believe that only their way of viewing the world should be the path to salvation, but in all reality if God is ineffable, then a religion practiced by imperfect humans could never hope to portray him completely or accurately. I like how the author, Jeffery Small, used a prism as a metaphor to describe religion. When we look into a prism we might see blue or red or any of the colors of the rainbow for Ultimate Reality. They are true but they are also incomplete in infinite contradiction; each color was a part of the white light in which it was created by. Each one of us has been molded differently through culture, our upbringing and even our genes. Maybe if we looked into the perspective of other religions we could learn a thing or two. Here is insight discussed through five major religions: Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. The short excerpts have been turned into a one sentence summarization as follows:
Judaism: Monotheism
God cannot be defined or contained.
Hinduism: View of the Soul
On the surface, we are individual, finite creatures, but our true natures are part of the ultimate divine, infinite and eternal reality.
Buddhism: Nature of Human Suffering
We are impermanent, and yet we resist this impermanence and the end of suffering comes from acceptance of this fundamental truth.
Islam: Peace Through Surrender
We find peace through a complete surrendering of every aspect our lives to this greater truth and source of the universe.
Christianity: Love
Agape is unselfish love. It is a love without bounds or conditions, a love that doesn't require reciprocity.
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